A Guide to Optimized Napping(priceonomics.com)
priceonomics.com
A Guide to Optimized Napping
http://priceonomics.com/a-guide-to-optimized-napping/
15 comments
My experience in American corporate is characterized by management organized to eek out every last bit of productivity.
Should that perhaps read: "...management organized to eek out every last bit of activity"?
There is a bias in favour of 7.5 or 8 (or more) hours of "active work", that is, "doing stuff", and many workers figure out how to fill their day with activity in the guise of productivity. Eventually management realizes workers have more time than they need, send in efficiency experts, people are laid off and tasks reassigned, and the cycle begins anew.
Workers tied to tightly synced processes, e.g., production lines, don't have this experience, generally, they are basically self-maintaining production machines themselves (no insult intended, some are highly skilled, but they plugged into an assembly line doing work machines cannot yet do - or for which capable machines are too expensive).
For the rest of the working world, let's baldly and boldly and wrongly say there are two other types of workers, so-called knowledge workers and all others (service industry agents, social workers, etc., etc.).
The latter are effectively in a process-oriented workflow whose event timings are unpredictable but broadly known. Escaping the activity trap would require data and prediction and flexibility that may simply be unfeasible with processes that are nearly 100% person dependent and person oriented. As long as management knows this, and accepts it, then there should be less need to fill in time appearing active, because productivity will occur when it needs to.
But when management loses sight of this, all manner of upset happens.
For the broad knowledge worker class, the solution is milestone-based management, with reasonable consideration given for reasonable downtime, since time spent not on the problem, whatever it is, is often the best time spent on the problem, because of the flashes of insight and mental rest that occur when not working so hard on whatever it is.
Should that perhaps read: "...management organized to eek out every last bit of activity"?
There is a bias in favour of 7.5 or 8 (or more) hours of "active work", that is, "doing stuff", and many workers figure out how to fill their day with activity in the guise of productivity. Eventually management realizes workers have more time than they need, send in efficiency experts, people are laid off and tasks reassigned, and the cycle begins anew.
Workers tied to tightly synced processes, e.g., production lines, don't have this experience, generally, they are basically self-maintaining production machines themselves (no insult intended, some are highly skilled, but they plugged into an assembly line doing work machines cannot yet do - or for which capable machines are too expensive).
For the rest of the working world, let's baldly and boldly and wrongly say there are two other types of workers, so-called knowledge workers and all others (service industry agents, social workers, etc., etc.).
The latter are effectively in a process-oriented workflow whose event timings are unpredictable but broadly known. Escaping the activity trap would require data and prediction and flexibility that may simply be unfeasible with processes that are nearly 100% person dependent and person oriented. As long as management knows this, and accepts it, then there should be less need to fill in time appearing active, because productivity will occur when it needs to.
But when management loses sight of this, all manner of upset happens.
For the broad knowledge worker class, the solution is milestone-based management, with reasonable consideration given for reasonable downtime, since time spent not on the problem, whatever it is, is often the best time spent on the problem, because of the flashes of insight and mental rest that occur when not working so hard on whatever it is.
The naive course of action is to maximize utilization instead of productivity. This is the message that is beaten to death in the book The Goal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel) ) , if you imagine that they were talking about people instead of factory machines.
On the subject of all-nighters and sleep debt:
You might be surprised at what a difference just a few hours of sleep + and afternoon nap can make. The downside is that it's really hard to wake up at that point (due to sleep inertia as the article calls it) and you feel really crappy- probably crappy enough that you might think "I'd feel better if I had just stayed up", and you wouldn't be wrong.
However, the upside is that you will be much more clear-headed later on than if you had stayed up. My personal guess is that after about 3 hours, most of the neurotransmitter metabolite soup has been cleaned up in your brain, and the rest of the normal sleep cycle is maintenance and repair (very important, but not 100% essential to basic functioning for a typical 8-hour work period).
I always ask myself whether I really need to be up all night or I could afford to spare a few hours for sleep.
You might be surprised at what a difference just a few hours of sleep + and afternoon nap can make. The downside is that it's really hard to wake up at that point (due to sleep inertia as the article calls it) and you feel really crappy- probably crappy enough that you might think "I'd feel better if I had just stayed up", and you wouldn't be wrong.
However, the upside is that you will be much more clear-headed later on than if you had stayed up. My personal guess is that after about 3 hours, most of the neurotransmitter metabolite soup has been cleaned up in your brain, and the rest of the normal sleep cycle is maintenance and repair (very important, but not 100% essential to basic functioning for a typical 8-hour work period).
I always ask myself whether I really need to be up all night or I could afford to spare a few hours for sleep.
I can only sleep when I'm extremely tired. I could use a daily nap but I just can't fall asleep; the mind races instead. Any tips?
This will be on a longish side, since it's a book, but first you need to understand why the mind is racing and why it's undesirable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now
Start by relaxing instead of napping. Once you get the hang of that napping comes next.
25 minutes of laying still in dark and quiet room also gives a lot of benefits. I rarely sleep during my "naps" but still find it very relaxing and refreshing.
So, you might start by doing that.
So, you might start by doing that.
They did a pretty interesting AMA on napping and sleep - probably answered there: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vyuz2/iama_scientist_...
Beer to calm the mind. Reduces working set. Encourages focus too. If done sparingly, can temporarily relief mold stress also.
My friend who works in industrial engineering told me that at an assembly plant in Japan, around 1 pm they will turn off the lights for 30 minutes so all the workers on the floor can take a nap.
http://biznik.com/articles/afternoon-nap-is-the-new-trend-in...
http://biznik.com/articles/afternoon-nap-is-the-new-trend-in...
I tried reading the article but my ADHD started a fistfight with me. I did, however, look at this guy's kickstarter, and was pleasantly surprised to find someone execute on an idea that I've had in the past and have never been able to find. I don't really bother with pre-ordering things, but I will definitely get one when they are released.
I think naps are great, and agree with the 20mins or 90mins time they advocate -- from my own experience this works.
On the other hand, as a parent of young child the suggestion that I have sufficient control over my days to be able to nap is amusing.
On the other hand, as a parent of young child the suggestion that I have sufficient control over my days to be able to nap is amusing.
I lay awake wondering if I'm napping properly.
Optimized napping? This isn't clever or informative, so I'm not sure why people spend their time reading this stuff, never mind write it.
What doesn't make any sense is management's typical blindness toward the reality of the mid-afternoon nap. 5-hour energy is making millions because we won't slow down and let our bodies rest in the afternoon when we biologically need a few minutes to recover.
It seems a company that fully embraces the productivity gains of a half hour nap would be both successful and loved by employees. But I would be chastised for taking a half hour nap in the middle of the afternoon.